DUI mom killed 2 girls, gets prison

Arlene Anna Hernandez, who pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter for crashing her car into the Otay Reservoir while drunk, killing her 5-year-old daughter and another child, was sentenced Friday. U-T TV

Arlene Anna Hernandez, who pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter for crashing her car into the Otay Reservoir while drunk, killing her 5-year-old daughter and another child, was sentenced Friday. U-T TV

CHULA VISTA  A drunken driver who plunged her SUV into Otay Reservoir last year, killing two 5-year-old girls including her own daughter, was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison.

Arlene Anna Hernandez, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with the Aug. 5 crash that ended the lives of her daughter, Lesette Silva, and friend Guiliana Figueroa of La Mesa.

Hernandez also pleaded guilty to one count of DUI causing injury.

Calling this “a particularly tragic case,” Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Theodore Weathers picked the eight-year sentence, noting that the maximum Hernandez faced under the terms of her plea agreement was 12 years.

The judge said the victims, who were seatbelted into the submerged SUV, were especially vulnerable.

“I’m tormented by the loss of my daughter,” said Natasha Lee, Giuliana’s mother. She described learning of their little girl’s injury, going to identify the body at Rady Children’s Hospital and the heart-wrenching time she spent preparing her only child for burial.

“You had no concern for the lives in which you were responsible for that day, two little angels that must have been terrified,” Lee said to defendant. “I would have died myself trying to save my child.”

According to evidence at Hernandez’s preliminary hearing in November, she had taken her daughter to a Mountain Hawk Park in Chula Vista for a “play date” with Guiliana and the child’s father, Eric Figueroa. The two adults drank beer while the children played.

Hernandez and Figueroa told investigators they each drank three beers at the park. Around 6 p.m., Hernandez said she saw skydivers coming in for a landing north of the reservoir and wanted her daughter to get a closer look.

The adults got into a Kia SUV with the children in the back seat. Lesette was buckled into a car seat; Guiliana was buckled in next to her but not in a child’s seat.

Hernandez lost control of the vehicle on Otay Lakes Road near Wueste Road. The SUV went off the right side of the road, over an embankment and plunged into the reservoir.

She told investigators that she had swerved to avoid a rock, but California Highway Patrol officers testified that no rock or other obstruction was found.

Hernandez’s blood was drawn later and tested. Her blood-alcohol content measured 1.5 times the legal limit for driving in California.

She and Figueroa were able to get out of the SUV and swim to the surface of the water. Several bystanders jumped into the reservoir to help.

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Travis Creteau was driving by when he was flagged down. He jumped in and swam to the overturned SUV. He used a knife to cut Lesette out of her car seat, and after several tries located Guiliana. Both girls were limp when they were brought to the surface.

Hernandez gave a tearful apology in court.

“I am so sorry for all the pain that I have caused you,” she said to Giuliana’s mother.

“I take full responsibility for the death of my daughter, Lesette, and the death of Giuliana. “With the time that I get sentenced to, your honor, I just want to be able to better myself and to work on myself as a mother and a daughter.”

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Jonathan Jordan said he thought the sentence was fair. He noted that Hernandez had never before been incarcerated, and didn’t get the chance to bury Lesette. She has two other children.

Deputy District Attorney Mary Loeb had argued that Hernandez should be sentenced to 12 years in prison.